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Saabnuts Assorted Shite Blog - A Shite Week Lacking Progress


Saabnut

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3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Sad to see a complete looking B5 Passat being hoisted like that - sure I could have harvested some useful bits off it! Still, they are currently still fairly common

From the rear it looked complete, there was no front end on it, no LHF suspension and most of the interior was missing. Another shiter had also been down to liberate a few bits. It had done its bit to keep others alive! :-)

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Tomorrow I have a collection to do for a friend, a simple job of picking up the bodyshell from storage and delivering it to his garage about 5 miles away. To do this I will need the Discovery of Doom and my Ifor Williams trailer with the electric winch. This week another friend borrowed my trailer as I am going to store his project car in my shed whilst he moves house and he reported the winch immediately started paying out as soon as power was applied. Today I unloaded the trailer and investigated the winch.

As the motor still turns, the problem must be the control box which I suspect has had water ingress, Opened it up, and yes, there has been water in there!

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Tried water dispersant but it would appear I am too late for that. On the right of the picture there is a small electronic type box which concerns me as I know sod all about electronics. I removed the complete box to further investigate then had a brainwave. I thought I would take power directly from the battery to the wires to the motor via jump leads, thinking that would solve the problem for tomorrow, but as said I know sod all about these things and that did not work! I have wimped out and organised some assistants for tomorrow and will investigate the control box later. I will take a long ratchet strab as an emergency if slow winch!

As to the car I am storing, a couple of photies

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Early start this morning (who knew there are TWO 7:30s on a Sunday) as this afternoon I had promised to help a friend paint his workshop that he is selling and this morning I had to move the latest resto project for another friend who is also my ex business partner. Bernie bought this car some 15 years ago for himself to do after he retired . He started on the Chassis about 5 yrars ago, but he keeps getting distracted with other projects like the MGB lurking in the background of one of the pics. The chassis and mechanicals are now complete so today was the day the previously shot blasted and primered shell was returned to his home garage from storage so he can start on that.

Bernie works to the highest of standards and this will be superb once finished. Anybody care to try and identify what it is?

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Been a bit* quiet due to the shite weather and a complete lack of enthusiasm! Nothin much achieved except the 53 plate Discovery TD5 I bought to replace the Discovery of Doom has done its job and the DOD has started (mostly) behaving itself so when I was offered a deal on it, I did! The main reason is I have agreed to buy a low mileage/low owner Disco 1 which I prefer so both TD5s can go. The new owner came over today to collect it (after it had gone I realised I did not have a photo of it) and he came in his p/ex.

It is scruffy, has a minging interior (it was used as a dog carrier on shoots), has no MOT and a very rotten chassis. Perfect as a spares car though and it has a nearly new set of tyres!

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On 9/26/2019 at 8:11 PM, bunglebus said:

Sad to see a complete looking B5 Passat being hoisted like that - sure I could have harvested some useful bits off it! Still, they are currently still fairly common

Had a few bits off it for mine and it was pretty well stripped when i got at it.

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I knew I should not have tempted fate by selling the Discovery replacement. As soon as the Discovery Of Doom realised its proposed replacement had gone, it reverted to its old ways.  Tomorrow, I am supposed to be delivering a road roller I recently sold to its new owner just over 100 miles away. To do this I have arranged to borrow a friends plant trailer, so this morning headed off to collect it. On the way there, the DOD started making a strange noise, a grinding noise that seemed to be speed dependent but this was cured* by turning the volume up on the radio.

Trailer collected, on the way back I ran out of radio volume and the brakes seemed to be less than 100% so on arriving home, into the workshop. Front right hand caliper carrier had decided that one bolt was plenty so had got rid of the second. My fault, I obviously had not tightened it enough when I fitted the new carrier, annoying because they are special bolts at nearly a fiver each. Fortunately, being a tightwad I had kept the old bolts, and the better one soon fitted.

A test run showed the brakes are back to how they should be, but there is still a rumbling from somewhere. As it was now getting dark, decided to leave it until tomorrow. Thought I would use the time to do the last outstanding job on the recently acquired Saab 9-5, which only had one main beam headlight working. Removed the front bumper and the offending headlight and found the problem. No bulb at all, and half the bulb holder missing! At this point my rechargeable work light decided it had been working long enough and wanted a recharge so it went out.

Not much achieved................

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Time for an update. Firstly some friends arrived Saturday morning (having travelled up from Maidstone and Hull) to strip the engine and gearbox from a rusty Saab 9-5 that I had collected for them. All went to plan and by mid afternoon Sunday te deed was done. Part way through...

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And how it looks now

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After my friends had left with the goodies, I decided to have a look at the Discovery of Doom to see if I could track down the grinding noise. The fact it had to get over about 20mph to make itself known made it tricky to diagnose. Took it up the road and it was still there, stopped and crawled all aound/under it and could see nothing wrong and all discs were cool to the touch which basically ruled out brakes. Went back home puzzled but another friend arrived who is a professional mechanic so sent him out to test it. He came back about 5 minutes later and pronounced front nearside wheel bearing failure. A quick jack up confirmed his diagnosis as as soon as the weight came off it was very clearly stuffed! FFS, more bits ordered! A picture to shame it!

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Whilst drinking tea with my friend, I mentioned how there was no power to the main beam headlight on the nearside of the Saab 9-5 I recently purchased from cpjitservices of this parish and how so far I had traced the wiring back but not found a problem so was suspecting something in the headlight itself, and as how several bits were missing from the headlight I was going to put an appeal on UKSaabs for a replacement. My friend, who in my defence is used to modern shite asked if I had checked the fuses, and I said it could not be a fuse as the offside was working fine, but he said some moderns have seperate fuses. Hmmmmm...

So this morning another friend came over to borrow my big trailer, the cost to him was to drop off the dead Iveco shell at the bridge as he would be passing. Fired this up for the first time since May (started first turn as it always does)

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Reversed the trailer to the van and pushed it on to the trailer with the Massey. Trouble was as the van has no engine/box when fully on the trailer it was still very tail heavy. Decided to put the van on backwards, and to make things easier, put the fork extensions on and lifted the van and turned the trailer round. This worked but as the van has a tow bar fitted, it would not go on the trailer without destroying my electric winch. Gave up with that and put the van in a temporary storage spot until I can borrow a Stihl saw and reduce it to more managable lumps

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So my friend escaped with my trailer and I got on with other things. As the Discovery is OTR until the new hub arrives, the only other vehicle on the road with a tow bar is my old Saab 900 convertible so hitched the trailer on that and loaded the roller ready to deliver it

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After that, mindful of what my friend had said about fuses on modern cars, I had a look at the 9-5 and sure enough there are indeed seperate fuses sometimes I am a bloody idiot! . A quick swap and I had a working light and a tie wrap later and it was secured in place. Refitted the headlight and front bumper and came in feeling smug. Quick phone call and it is booked in for MOT tomorrow morning at 0945. Wish me luck!

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Some success today - but sadly not with the Discovery of Doom as the parts have not arrived. No, the Saab 9-5 passed its MOT today thanks to an understanding and shite friendly tester.

Tomorrow it tows a road roller down to between Edinburgh and Glasgow (Shotts), then fetches some seats to go south, then fetches a load of bits for Mr 6C. Thursday i will head for Sheffield, Saturday Leicestershire and Sunday LeMans. A proper test.....

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A long overdue update on this thread. Shortly after the last update the new hub for the Discovery of Doom arrived, but lacking enthusiasm, it was put to one side whilst I got sidetracked with buying a Disco 1, a Pug 205 and a Volvo 240 GLT Estate, all of which has been documented elsewhere. The 9-5 estate has provided sterling service, so far covering about 6k miles for me, about 60% of that towing.

Yesterday my friend phoned to see if I had a towcar he could borrow to move his 2.5tonne mini-digger around as his pick up is currently off the road for some fettling. He borrowed the DOD about 6 months ago and wondered if it was available. This spurred me on so yesterday afternoon he came down and we pulled the old hub off. Several of the rollers in the wheel bearing had escaped, so it was definitely time for a replacement. Went to fit the new one that has been cluttering up my porch since October to find the supplied bolts for bolting it to the axle were too short. Further investigation shows they are the correct bolts for the rear axle that uses the same hub, but the front axle has thicker flanges.

This morning was taken up with a job interview, but on the way back I picked up the correct bolts. Ten minutes later the hub was on, torqued up and the new ABS sensor connected up. At this point I went to put the calliper carrier on, but could not find the new bolts for it which are special M14s. After 10 minutes or frantic looking I remembered I had only bought two when I did the other side as that was all the specialist had in stock. Another run out to the specialist (fortuneately only 8 miles away) and I had two in my hand (once again he only had 2 in stock) and half an hour later it was all back together with the wheel on and back on the ground.

At this point I should mention that for the last 6 months, it has had a bit of a strange starting problem, turning the key brought on the ignition lights and heater plugs, but turning to start would engage the starter only briefly. Repeated attempts would eventually see it start and hold and by experimentation I came to the conclusion it was the alternator not producing full voltage as putting jump leads on to the (new) battery would see it start first time. As it was still charging the battery, I decided to live with it until it became a problem. Yesterday when I started it for the first time in a couple of months, it started fourth turn and drove in to the shed, but I noticed a bit of a whine from under the bonnet. I put this down to something being a bit dry after sitting.

After putting it all back together today, I went to start it. As soon as I switched to position 2 the starter engaged. Turning it off made no difference. Eventually it switched off and I tried again, this time at one point I had the key in my hand out of the car and the starter was still turning. When it stopped after about 30 seconds, I put jump leads on, and normal service was resumed. Gave it some heat and turned the key to position 2 and it started like it should, but the whine was more pronounced. Whilst listening to it, I realised it was the starter motor having failed to disengage so turned it off. It is now completely dead in the starter position so it looks like I have killed the starter motor. Of course, the question now is was it the starter that has failed causing the problem, is it the ignition switch or is it the wiring between (the car had had mice in it before I got it). So, it was pushed back into the naughty corner whilst I attempt to find some enthusiasm again!

Whilst typing this I realised since it went back on the road I have only covered less than 500 miles in it as everytime I fix anything, something else has immediately gone wrong. Just checked and the MOT is due again at the end of this month FFS. Once fixed this time, it is getting a new MOT and is then being sold (where of course it will be totally trouble free for the next owner, after all I have replaced everything on it!) but this one has finally broken me. This is the first one to do that to me in over 40 years of motoring and fixing cars. I truly hate it now!

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2 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

If it's had mice in step 1 for me would be fit a battery isolator switch so you can rapidly isolate it if (when) it tries to set fire to itself.

I have already fitted an isolator, but decided not to turn it this evening in the hope it would catch fire as the door is up against my trailer as the naughty corner is not very wide and the bonnet is shut.

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A bit of a strange week this one, seemed to have been busy but achieved so little! I have had to hang around the telephone most of the week to see if the work prospect can move from possibility to probability. They eventually phoned on Thursday, but there is still nothing definite as yet. Ho hum.

Monday was the highlight of the week, when a friend came over, sorted the wiring on the DMW Deemster and it ran for the first time in over 6 years (note the two stroke haze in the picture). This would be ready to head off to its new home, but of course I cannot find the paperwork for it. I can see an exciting* Saturday evening looking for it. I know I put it safe......

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Tuesday was being near the phone, but took advantage to sort out the storm damage to my water supply, basically so much sand had washed down it had blocked the filter on the pick up, so several hours of digging whilst knee deep in very cold water sorted it out and normal service has been resumed.

Wednesday saw a double collection, with one car being collected on behalf of a shiter

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And one to add to my fleet of useful chod

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These collections took all day and confirmed that the turbo on the Disco was not doing anything still.

Thursday was another phone day, but as the sun was out I grabbed the opportunity to take photos of the 1950 Sunbeam Talbot 90 Mk2 that I will be putting up for sale in the very near future

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Friday was over to see my friend in Arbroath to investigate the Disco. It drove over fine, but still lacking in power. Since I acquired it, I have replaced the AMM and the Turbo boost sensor, as well as removing the EGR. My suspicion was now falling on an air leak, with my main suspect the intercooler. A good dose of googling suggested this was unlikely as early Discos had a good quality intercooler fitted, but I have been caught before. My friend has a smoke machine and initial test was the inlet manifold, all showed good. We then tested the intercooler and pipework, and the internet was proven right as there was no leaks anywhere.

Next investigation was to try and read the software. Disco 1s have an early form of Land Rover software, which is not compatible with the later software fitted to everything later, the only thing similar is the same vintage P38 Range Rovers. My local specialist only has the later software box (he did try it but nothing could be seen) but my friend has a hybrid system I borrowed when I had the P38 so we decided to try that. Eventually we got it to communicate and it showed an AMM error code which I think was from the original AMM before I cahanged it. The thinking is that this old system needs codes clearing manually once something is sorted. The code stayed off, and whilst undoubtedly it now drives better, I was sure it was still lacking power.

This morning, I hooked on my Ifor Williams trailer and headed to the hills to test it, sadly this confirmed whilst it is not too bad solo, it is still far from producing full power when under load. I have now exhausted all the simple* fixes. Speaking to another friend in Perth, he has suggested the problem may lie in the fuel pump, which he assures me is reasonably simple. As I have never worked on a diesel pump, a compromise was reached whereby I will drive down to see him and drink his tea whilst he has a look at the pump. Seems fair to me.....

Back home, I decided to have another look at the Holden and see if I could get the brakes working. Many hours later, the brakes seem to be a bit better, and the ABS pump is definitely working, but they are still far from 100%. By now, it was starting to get dark, so I parked it next to the Discovery of Doom in the naughty corner. The last thing I did was to visit the DMW and see if it was still fixed. Started third lick, so ending the week on a high! :-)

Tomorrow, nothing will happen as I have a hospital appointment (yes, up here they have started Sunday appointments) to see if they can find out why I keep knocking the skin off my hands! Start a fresh week on Monday, hopefully I can achieve something this time.

 

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